Sherman Oaks

One of the year’s biggest games, Middle-Earth: Shadow of War is an epic sequel to the Lord of the Rings gaming universe that promises to be even bigger than the original. Shadow of War includes action packed performances by Troy Baker, who not only acts but also directs the motion capture in the game using Faceware for the facial motion capture performances on set. We’re thrilled to see these great performances come to life in Shadow of War. Check out more in the behind the scenes video of the game with Troy Baker.

The postPerspective Impact Award honors innovative products and technologies for the post production and production industries that will influence the way people work. Seeking to recognize debut products with real-world applications, the postPerspective Impact Awards are determined by an anonymous judging body comprised of respected industry professionals.

“Faceware Live 2.5 is a game changer for the industry. With technology advancements in CG, VR/AR/MR, interactive marketing, and graphics processing, we’re seeing a growing number of inquiries for live CG performances and the ability to ‘drive’ digital characters in real time,” shares Peter Busch, vice president of business development at Faceware Technologies. “To deliver on that, the market needs face tracking technology that is completely stable and tracks facial movements across a range of different conditions. With Live 2.5, we’re taking another important step toward making that future a reality. The quality of realtime, markerless tracking we can do now is absolutely mind-blowing.”

New SDK will allow developers and creatives to create integrated real-time, markerless face tracking experiences in the entertainment space

Los Angeles, Calif. – July 27, 2017 – Faceware Technologies, the leading provider of markerless 3D facial motion capture solutions, today announced an SDK for its real-time facial mocap and animation technology, Faceware Live. The Windowsⓒ Native C++ SDK will enable developers and creatives to build their own real-time, interactive applications. SDK users can allow live player-to-player chat in games, live interactive displays and activations, and even integrate the SDK into their own production tools and processes. Faceware will be speaking about the capabilities of the SDK at SIGGRAPH 2017 (Booth 741) from Aug 1-3.

“With the rise in VR/AR/MR, interactive marketing, and the use of CG, we’re seeing a growing number of inquiries from many different markets,” said Peter Busch, vice president of business development at Faceware Technologies. “Rather than addressing each and every request, we’ve created a SDK to enable developers to develop the tools they need to meet their own needs. We’ve got some amazing use cases I can’t wait to talk about.”

Features of the new SDK include:

Windows Native C++

High-frame-rate tracking, with no visible latency

Over 100 APIs developers can use to track and animate faces in real time

Create facial animation in real time from a person’s face on video

Tracks 82 landmarks on the face and streams over 40 animation controls

One second camera-to-face calibration

SDK can track facial movement from a live camera feed, a video file (e.g .mov file), or an image sequence (e.g. .jpg)

Works with almost any camera or webcam, including head-mounted cameras

Simulate animation output for easy debugging and testing your character animation before use

“We’re really excited to put our real time facial tracking technology directly into the hands of developers,” said Jay Grenier, director of software and technology at Faceware. “Faceware Live has or is being used for a number of real-time applications, such as Hasbro’s live-streamed social media announcement for Monopoly and the recent Macinness-Scott installation at Sotheby’s ‘Art of VR’ event in New York. And now, with Faceware LiveSDK, the community is about to get a fantastic new tool to develop their own amazing applications.”

Availability

Faceware LiveSDK is will be available soon on a limited basis. Companies interested in using the SDK should contact sales@facewaretech.com.

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About Faceware Technologies

Faceware Technologies Inc. (FTI), established in 2012 after years as part of leading facial tracking and augmented reality company Image Metrics, is dedicated to meeting the needs of professional animators in the video game, film, television, and commercial industries. The company’s Faceware Facial Motion Capture product line has been utilized in the production of hundreds of video game titles, feature films, music videos, commercials, television shows, and stage plays, and is the leading facial animation solution provider for clients such as Double Negative, Digital Domain, Blur Studios, Activision-Blizzard, Rockstar Games, Microsoft, 2K Sports, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Sega, Sony, Bethesda, Motion Theory and Moving Picture Company. Faceware’s product consists of the Faceware GoPro and Pro HD Headcam and Tripod Capture Systems; Faceware Analyzer, which allows clients to analyze and process their own performance videos; Faceware Retargeter, an Autodesk plugin which allows users to create facial motion capture data at a much faster rate than traditional methods; and Faceware Live, the real-time facial capture and animation solution. www.facewaretech.com

Our calendars are marked for the November 17 release of Star Wars Battlefront II and we’re anxiously counting down the days! Working with EA on this epic saga has been extraordinary. It’s always such a thrill to see our products in action, and this behind-the-scenes provides a spectacular look at the technology and talent of so many.

E3 2017 – the biggest event in the gaming industry – may be over, but the anticipation and buzz on all the new games continues on! A recent article from gameindustry.com reported these incredible stats related to social media conversations about E3 news within the last week:

a third of people talking about E3 and its games on Facebook are women, with men making up 65% of the conversation

78% are in their teenage years or early twenties

2.9m people have been talking about FIFA 18

FIFA 18 and Call of Duty: WWII led the way with 3.7m views each on video coverage

COD beat FIFA when it came to activity on Twitter (No.1 with 25,000 RTs vs No.4 with 15,700) and Facebook (No.3 with 35,100 shares vs No.10 with 13,100)

Here at Faceware, we’re excited for so many of our partners on their upcoming title releases. Check out a few of the mind-blowing trailers in the articles below:

Los Angeles, Calif. – May 23, 2017 –Faceware Technologies, the leading provider of markerless 3D facial motion capture solutions, today announced that itsFaceware Interactive division has upgraded and released version 2.5 of its real-time facial mocap and animation product,Faceware Live. The latest upgrades are the result of advancements in the consumer-grade facial tracking technology developed by Faceware’s parent company, Image Metrics, which has been used in successful apps like L’Oreal’sMakeupGenius and Nissan’sDie Hard Fan, and which now has been incorporated into Faceware Live.

Faceware Live produces facial animation in real time by automatically tracking a performer’s face and instantly applying that performance to a facial model. Faceware Live requires just a single camera for tracking purposes. That camera can be an onboard computer video or webcam, the Faceware GoPro or Pro HD Headcam Systems, or any other video capture device.

Use Cases for Live 2.5

Live performances that incorporate digital characters. Digital characters can be “puppeted” in real time, allowing interaction with live audiences and people.

Digital characters interacting in real time on kiosk screens in theme parks and shopping malls.

Creating facial animation content instantly for previz purposes.

Person-driven avatars in VR and AR. Users can stream their own personas into digital and virtual worlds—perfect for training applications as well as interactive chat functionality.

“With technology advancements in CG, VR/AR/MR, interactive marketing, and graphics processing, we’re seeing a growing number of inquiries for live CG performances and the ability to ‘drive’ digital characters in real time,” said Peter Busch, vice president of business development at Faceware Technologies. “To deliver on that, the market needs face tracking technology that is completely stable and tracks facial movements across a range of different conditions. With Live 2.5, we’re taking another important step toward making that future a reality. The quality of realtime, markerless tracking we can do now is absolutely mind-blowing.”

Upgrades to Live 2.5

Version 2.5 upgrades include:

Advancements to Face Tracking Technology – Face tracking is even more stable than before, and better able to detect different types of faces (different skin tones, heavy facial hair, glasses, etc) in different lighting conditions. Once detected, Live 2.5 captures 180 degrees of motion with significantly less jitter than before.

New Animation Tuning Workflow– Animators can customize the live streaming animation to, for example, amplify or suppress a specific motion, such as an eyebrow raise or smile. These fine tune adjustments are done on a pose by pose basis. Those animations (and all settings) can be saved to a profile. Animators can even isolate controls to pinpoint certain areas of the face that require extra attention. Lastly, Animators can simulate data without need for a live camera feed, which significantly helps in the character setup process.

Command Line Calibration – Animators can now trigger the calibration and toggle via command-line for improved automation in your setup.

Animation Preview Characters – Live 2.5 now includes animation preview characters, which animators can use to determine how certain types of motions might look on various facial structures.

Nearly 20 other improvements have also been included in this upgrade. A full list can be foundhere.

Support

Availability

Faceware Live 2.5 is available free-of-charge to current Live customers starting today. New customer should contact Faceware sales pricing and information at sales@facewaretech.com. For more product information, please visit theFaceware Live page.

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About Faceware Technologies

Faceware Technologies Inc. (FTI), established in 2012 after years as part of leading facial tracking and augmented reality company Image Metrics, is dedicated to meeting the needs of professional animators in the video game, film, television, and commercial industries. The company’s Faceware Facial Motion Capture product line has been utilized in the production of hundreds of video game titles, feature films, music videos, commercials, television shows, and stage plays, and is the leading facial animation solution provider for clients such as Double Negative, Digital Domain, Blur Studios, Activision-Blizzard, Rockstar Games, Microsoft, 2K Sports, Electronic Arts, Ubisoft, Sega, Sony, Bethesda, Motion Theory and Moving Picture Company. Faceware’s product consists of the Faceware GoPro and Pro HD Headcam and Tripod Capture Systems; Faceware Analyzer, which allows clients to analyze and process their own performance videos; Faceware Retargeter, an Autodesk plugin which allows users to create facial motion capture data at a much faster rate than traditional methods; and Faceware Live, the real-time facial capture and animation solution.

The game is already earning accolades for its top notch facial animation, created with Faceware’s award-winning facial motion capture hardware and software solutions including the Faceware ProHD Headcam System and Analyzer 3.0 and Retargeter 5.0 software.

Just as bad animation can severely cripple a video game’s ability to tell a compelling story, good animation draws the viewer into the narrative, adding emotion and nuance. Injustice 2 has very, very good animation.

Using Faceware’s hardware and software solutions, NetherRealm Studios was able to quickly capture high quality facial motion capture data on set and use the resulting data in Analyzer 3.0 and Retargeter 5.0 to create the vaunted facial animation for Injustice 2.

VP of Business Development Peter Busch explains:

Our facial recognition technology is able to capture a great deal of nuances from the brows, to the eyes, nose, cheeks, and mouth by tracking textures and features, rather limiting the quality of the data by tracking points of the face, in order to create highly detailed output. This enables our software to handle anything from stylized to photo-real characters. Together with other features like timecode support, capture, trimming, pose libraries, and a technological core drawing from over 10,000 minutes of facial performance data and users in almost 50 countries, Analyzer and Retargeter are the most powerful tools available for facial animation. Our decades of facial motion capture technology research and experience has created a streamlined and flexible workflow – one that enables teams to scale and create high-quality, high-volume animation, all while staying within budget and maximizing artists’ creative control.

Barbie’s vlog hits new milestone

Mattel’s Barbie vlog, created by CounterPunch together with House of Moves and Faceware Technologies, reached a major milestone today with 2 million subscribers and 23 million views. The vlog has reached this impressive number in less than 2 years but even more impressive is that each animated episode is created withless than 5 days of production.

How you might ask? Check out the Barbie vlog case study to find out how we helped CounterPunch and House of Moves bring Barbie to life with rapid production.

Faceware VP of Business Development, Peter Busch will be delivering a key note address for the Magnify Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Business Summit to be held on May 8, 2017.

Over 30 recognized VR and AR experts from around the world will discuss cutting-edge research and best practices for VR and AR. The event will bring together top industry professionals through panels, round table discussions, interactive workshops, and demonstrations. Held annually, the summit will discuss a variety of topics in finance, film, television, tourism, gaming, investment, and China.

ABC’s live action/CGI hybrid stars Jenna Elfman as Alice, a fiercely independent career woman whose life is turned upside-down when she meets the love of her life–Ben, a divorced father with three kids, played by Stephen Schneider.

The real fun begins when Alice’s imaginary friend from her childhood returns as sassy and sharp-tongued Mary. Zoic Studios created the animated character voiced by Saturday Night Live alum’s Rachel Dratch, using Faceware’s Creation Suite Pro Complete System which includes the Faceware ProHD Headcam, Analyzer 3.0 Studio Plus, and Retargeter 5.0 Studio Plus software.

Using this complete System, Zoic was able to quickly shoot the facial motion capture completely marker-less and create the quality facial animation used for the live action ABC network show.

VP of Business Development at Faceware, Peter Busch, notes that unlike other motion capture solutions, “rather than limiting the quality of the data by tracking points on the face, our technology tracks textures and features to create highly detailed output. This enables our software to handle anything from stylized to photo-real characters. Markers inherently can also cause many technical issues during performance capture—plus, if you think what it takes to create convincing CG animation for the face—two key elements are the eyes and it’s the quality of lip sync—you can’t put markers on the eyes or on the inner lips. It’s great to be part of an ambitious project that harnesses these unique capabilities to create an interactive CG character for Prime Time TV.”

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About Faceware Tech

For over a decade, Faceware Tech has pioneered marker-less facial motion capture with our technology and expertise. Our software has been used on Oscar-winning visual effect films, award-winning AAA video games, commercials, music videos, and web series the world over.